Page 41 of A Lick of Flame

She holds the skin to my mouth again, and I drink some more, slower this time.

“You need to eat. You need to be untied and—” She starts toward the rope.

“No! Don’t! Leave it. You need to go and right now. I’m fine.”

“I can’t just leave you. This isn’t right,” she whispers.

“I’m fine…for now,” I speak under my breath. “I’ve counted twenty-two of them, excluding Olivia. It’s too many for me to take on. We need to bide our time and keep our heads down.”

“You’re not fine.” Her eyes are hazy with concern. “And I don’t care how many of them there are. They know we’re working together.” She shrugs.

“You should care, and you can’t be seen coddling me. We are enemies, remember?”

“We’re in the middle of a truce, remember?”

Despite my better judgment, I smile, and she smiles back.

“I’m worried about you,” I tell her.

“Me? You’re the one tied up and beaten.” She touches the blood still caked on my throat. “They’re brutes.”

I want to point out that she called me that just yesterday, but I don’t.

“We’re in trouble here, Maya,” I tell her instead. “I don’t like this.”

“I know we are.” She frowns, glancing back at the men at the fire for a moment.

“We can’t trust them. I know that your friend is one of—”

“Olivia’s not really a friend.” She shakes her head. “We worked together for a couple of years, but...” She shrugs. “My gut is telling me not to trust any of them, her included. Why didn’t they just let us go? Why escort us to the beastfae kingdom first? What difference would it make?” Her eyes lift in thought. “They say it’s for my protection, but that doesn’t make sense. They could have killed you and taken me or killed us both. That, or let us go. This…” She points at my binds. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

Maya is an intelligent woman. I admire that. I admire her for sticking up for me even when her life was on the line. I know that she needs me alive, but it still took courage. Helping me right now is risky. I can’t let her stay here with me for too long. She shouldn’t be here at all.

“You’re right. There is something going on.” I sigh. “We’re due to reach my territory late tomorrow, more than likely before nightfall.”

“We have until then to figure it out.”

“More like until the following morning, at the very latest.”

The one side of her mouth lifts in the start of a smile. “I haven’t heard anyone call it that in a while…morning. It’s nightlift now. Morning would indicate the presence of the sun, which, just like the fae kings, is lost.” She frowns. “Probably never to return again,” she mutters.

Never to return – not if I have anything to say about it.

For just a moment, I am tempted to tell her who I am, but I don’t. I can’t trust this human. I can’t trust anyone right now.

“Are we going to try to escape?” she whispers, leaning in so that I feel her words against my skin. So that I can smell her scent.

Maya smells like a newly opened rose. Of summer rain and winter skies. Of human, too. I should find the scent unpleasant. I don’t. Not in the least. In fact, I find myself breathing her in, wanting to strain against my binds to get closer. I don’t.

“Are we going to attempt it?” she adds when I don’t answer.

“An attempt at escape would be risky. There are always a couple of men on guard. They are a big group. They don’t all know one another. I’ve noticed how they continually split up into smaller groups where there is a camaraderie. It’s like several bands of men joined forces.”

“You need to eat.” Maya holds a spoon to my lips, and I chew and swallow. My mind is working all the while. Why are Ethan and his men here? To hunt us down? Is there another reason and we’re just collateral damage?

Maya narrows her eyes in thought. “You know what, you’re right. Ethan doesn’t know everyone’s name. As the leader, he should. He wouldn’t if they’d only been traveling together for a short while. Do you think it’s significant?” She feeds me another mouthful of stew, her eyes clouded with contemplation.

I eat in silence for a minute. “It could be. Something else I found interesting…” I take a smaller bite, chewing and swallowing quickly. “I think that Ethan sent a carrier pigeon earlier. Right after they found us and decided to take us with them.”

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